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Classic TV intros #3: Hawaii Five-O

A weekly series looking back on classic TV show intros …

Programme

Hawaii Five-O (279 episodes, 1968-80)

Premise

Following the investigations and adventures of Five-O (Hawaii being the 50th state of the USA), an elite state police unit headed by Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord), with the mission of tackling the Hawaiian criminal underworld, espionage, terrorism and other major crimes. But without the moustache and the Ferrari.

The intro

Despite having only the haziest memory of the show itself – I first watched it as a five or six-year old – the programme’s intro remains one of the strongest TV memories from my childhood, from the first drum beats of Morton Stevens‘ rousing theme tune to several of the key visual elements.

The image of the rolling ocean wave which plays behind the title card is surely one of the most distinctive opening elements of any intro ever. It is then followed by a series of unique and distinctive shots, from the fast zoom in to McGarrett standing on a hotel penthouse balcony, via a fish-eye view of a 747 at Honolulu Airport and a start-stop close-up of a dancing hula girl – all intercut with snapshots of distinctive Hawaiian landmarks – before finishing on the flashing blue light of a speeding police motorcycle. There is no mistaking the show’s exotic home – further reinforced by extensive use of exterior locations in the episodes themselves – which stamps the Hawaiian islands’ identity all over it. Watching the intro sequence for the first time in what must be 25 years, I am amazed by how much of its detail remains rooted in my memory.

The minute-long opening sequence was created by Reza Badiyi, whose long and impressive CV also includes directorial credits for Mission:Impossible, The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky & Hutch, The Rockford Files, Cagney & Lacey and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

An updated remake of Hawaii Five-O has just – as of last week – started airing in the US. (In the UK, it will be broadcast on Bravo, although no air-date had been confirmed at the time of writing.) The new show stars Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight, The Shield) as McGarrett, who is joined by Scott Caan (Entourage), Lost‘s Daniel Dae Kim and Battlestar Galactica‘s Grace Park, with Heroes‘ Masi Oka also on board in a recurring role.

Pleasingly, the new intro – although considerably shorter at 30 seconds – has remained impressively faithful to both the musical and visual elements of the original. Based on its iconic intro alone, I’ll certainly be giving it a try.

Trivia

Jack Lord was the original Felix Leiter in the first James Bond film Dr No.

Kam Fong (who played Five-O member Chin Ho Kelly) was also an 18-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department.

Hawaii Five-O was the longest running crime programme on US network television until Law & Order passed it in 2003.

Helen Kuoha-Torco, the grass-skirted hula dancer who features in the title sequence, has since become a Professor of Business Technology.

Magnum P.I. began shooting in Hawaii shortly after Hawaii Five-O ended. To build continuity, a number of references to Five-O are made in early episodes of Magnum, such as Magnum’s observation in the first episode: “Putting Dan on this stuff is like making McGarrett the meter maid on Waikiki.”

In the 2010 remake, ‘Kono’ Kalakaua is played by Grace Park, who took the role of Sharon ‘Boomer’ Valerii in the remake of Battlestar Galactica. In both cases, her original character was male.

There can be no doubt about the original theme tune, it’s got to be up there in the top5 most iconic. If it wasn’t why is it if you get any bunch of guys between 30 and 50 in a room and go ‘Da da da da’ someone will chip in with the next line of ‘de de de de’ and within seconds most of the room is singing along. At least I’ve seen that happen more than once (and I didn’t start it.) The video to go with is very good for the time I think, but not sure why I remember a bunch of guys paddling in some big canoe like thing, was it the end sequence or revised titles?

The new one is a great homage to the original in terms of the sequence, but the music looses a lot by exchanging the bass of the drum beat for that electronic beat for me. The drums gave you that sense of natives of the island playing their traditional drums, pulling you in to the idea you were going somewhere quite different. The new version does nothing musically to take you to Hawaii in my opinion. Still at least they haven’t completely changed it and it may yet grow on me. Whenever they tweak classics like the Dr Who theme tune it can take a few listens before you really get into it and say “actually I like this one better than the one before.”

Funny, I’ve experienced the same thing in a room full of 30-somethings too. (And no, I didn’t start it either!) It really shows your age, though!

You’re absolutely right about the canoeists – great recall! – they formed the backdrop for the closing credits from season 2 onwards. (Season 1 had a sped-up version of a flashing-blue instead.) Both are on YouTube if you search for “Hawaii Five-O closing credits”.

I know what you mean about the new theme tune. I can forgive it just about, although it’s not a patch on the original as you say. Apparently it’s already been reworked a couple of times to bring it closer to the original, and the version on the link here may not actually be the final one used. I’ll have a check when the series starts airing here to see if it’s been changed again. Maybe my expectations are much lower for remakes, having sat through the awful mess they made of the Knight Rider theme (see link above).

Another bit of trivia – the hula dancer in the original opening scene, Helen Kuoha-Torco, will have a small role in episode #3 of the new remake series airing this week! She also has 6 children and many grandchildren now.

I think it’s always a good thing when remakes give a gentle nod to their predecessors. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, but it’s immensely satisfying for those of us who grew up with the original series.

[…] I was Googling a related topic, when what should come up as the third search result on page one but the title and opening text of a post I wrote four weeks ago relating to the classic TV show Hawaii […]